Gojek And Grab Want To Merge To Become A Jumbo Company?

Online motorcycle taxi drivers for Grab and Gojek (Irvan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - Santer reportedly said that Gojek and Grab would merge a company, aka a merger. Later, the two rulers of the ride hailing industry will become one jumbo company in providing on-demand services in Southeast Asia.

This news was first reported by the media, The Information, which quoted an insider's source. The report stated that the two companies had made an assessment regarding the consolidation of their services.

Recently, the two rulers of the ride hailing industry began to seriously discuss the matter of company mergers. Furthermore, Grab President Ming Maa and Gojek CEO Andre Soelistyo had a meeting to discuss the merger plan.

"Discussions about mergers have become serious in recent months. With the two companies trying to stem the losses arising from competition for market share," was quoted as saying by The Information, Tuesday, February 25.

But the talks reportedly found an obstacle in who would control the merged entities. Gojek reportedly does not want its operations to be merged into Grab.

Meanwhile, Grab told its major investors that Gojek wanted an agreement in which the shareholders wanted to own 50 percent of the company's joint operations in Indonesia. However, Grab is said to want to control this joint entity, including operations in Indonesia.

However, it was reported Straitstimes if the rumors of the merger were not true. Where to quote from Gojek's official statement that denied the report.

"There is no merger plan, and the news circulating in the media regarding this matter is inaccurate," said Gojek's Chief Corporate Affairs, Nila Marita. Meanwhile, Grab is reluctant to comment on this issue.

If the rumors about this merger really happen in the future, then Grab or Gojek could become a jumbo startup company with a pretty fantastic valuation. Moreover, both have received fresh funds from a number of large investors.

For example, Grab has just received an injection of fresh funds of around 80 billion yen or around Rp. 9.8 trillion from the largest bank in Japan, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group or MUFG. This makes the valuation of Grab's funds touted as reaching 14 billion US dollars (Rp125.1 trillion).

Meanwhile, Gojek itself has now collected an investment of more than 3 billion US dollars with a total valuation of 10 billion US dollars. Moreover, Gojek, which recently bought a portion of Blue Bird's shares, amounting to IDR410 billion.

The competition between these two decacorn startups is not only in the transportation sector, but also in food-beverage delivery services, delivery of goods, payment systems, and others. Both Gojek and Grab have expanded to several countries in Southeast Asia, such as Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand.